Keywords
Elisha
Sons of the Prophets
1 & 2 Kings
2 Kings 2
2 Kings 6
1-7
Generational Succession
How to Cite
Abstract
Against a long-standing trend in biblical scholarship to demean and diminish the significance and purpose of the Elisha story of the lost axe head in 2 Kings 6:1-7, this paper shows this story’s strategic purpose in relation to a central theological theme of the Elijah-Elisha complex and the entire Kings corpus. By pointing out the striking literary parallels and connections between this Elisha story and the story of Elisha’s receiving the mantle of Elijah in 2 Kings 2, together with this latter story’s central thematic role not only in the Elijah-Elisha materials but in the Kings narrative as a whole, the story of the lost axe head reveals the pivotal divine purpose of transacting spiritual succession from one generation to the next.
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https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2018/v31n3a21References
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Brueggemann, Walter. 1 & 2 Kings. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2000.
__________. Hope within History. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987.
Long, Burke O. 2 Kings, Forms of the Old Testament Literature, Vol. X. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.
Nelson, Richard. First and Second Kings, Interpretation Series; Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1987.
________. “The Anatomy of the Book of Kings,†Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 40 (1988): 39-48.
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Savran, George. “1 and 2 Kings.†Pages 148-149 in The Literary Guide to the Bible. Edited by R Alter & F. Kermode. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Wallace, Ronald S. Elijah and Elisha: Expositions from the Book of Kings. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1957.
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